Wakeup Wednesday
Posted on by Debbie

We’re all going on a summer holiday…

Some Amazing News!!!

Just this week I wrote the following on my Deb’s World facebook page and there’s a reason why I shared this Qantas advert. (note: I rarely fly Qantas but I love the ad).

All the feels….especially the grandma meeting her daughter and grandchild at the airport 😢

This song ‘I still call Australia Home’ by Peter Allen, has always had an impact on me. When we lived in England for a year, my sister sent it to me on a mixed tape she’d made (back in the days you made mixed tapes 😂). I’ve never been able to listen to it without tearing up and thinking of that special time. And now I think of my daughter and granddaughter living over there when I hear it, so yes it gets me every time! The scenery, the words, the passion, the love…

Deb’s World Facebook page

Yes it’s an ad for Qantas, our national carrier, but I forget that part and listen to what it awakes in me.

A summer/winter holiday

We were last in England visiting my daughter, SIL and granddaughter Dottie, in January 2020. We’d been there since November 2019 and enjoyed seeing the family, catching up with friends and giving tiny Dottie cuddles. She’d been born very early, at 25 weeks gestation, in the August, and I’d already spent a month with them all while she was in NICU. Home to Aus for a few weeks and then the Mathematician and I made our way to England to welcome Dottie home after she’d spent 98 days in hospital. To say it was an emotional time is an understatement.

Then as we enjoyed a cold Christmas season in the UK, the Black Summer Bushfires, as they became known, flared up in our home town and we watched, with increasing horror, events unfolding at home that we could hardly comprehend. At times we were sure we’d have no home to return to but, unlike many others, our home was spared, due to a late wind change. Our town of Tumbarumba was a ghost town with no power, no communication, no water and everyone evacuated for the best part of a month. It was scary not knowing what we would go home to.

But we made it home, threw out all the food left in the freezer while the power had been off, and got on with helping others in whatever way we could.

Not long afterwards our first grandson was born in Queensland and we were there to welcome him into the world and help our youngest daughter and her husband as they started a new life as parents.

Then Covid hit and we had to get home as the borders were being closed.

The next few years were a mish-mash of emotions with lockdowns, internal and international borders closed, fear and families kept apart. We couldn’t leave Australia unless we applied for an exemption.

So come 2022 the situation isn’t all that much better with Covid but the borders are open and we can travel overseas again. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take the risk especially with the war in Ukraine going on but it got to the point I just had to book a trip to see my family in England and I bit the bullet and did it!

It’s amazing how wonderful it feels to have something to look forward to, the anticipation, although nerve-racking in some ways, is exciting. When I booked our flights I actually felt a bit reckless.

We are having a month in the village where my daughter lives, we’ve booked a cottage for the month, and will just stay there to enjoy the family time. No doubt they’ll get sick of us popping around but too bad. I have over 2 and a half years of cuddles with Dottie to catch up on! Normally we would book extra flights to visit friends all over Europe but not this time. We will be with Dottie for her third birthday so that will be extra special.

The good part is that it will be late summertime in England and late winter time here in Aus so it’s a win/win for me. We also have plans to visit my daughter and grandson in Queensland for a few weeks before we head to UK, so more time away from our winter temperatures. The difference in climate from where we live in rural southern NSW to Qld in winter is amazing. We’ll no doubt be swimming up there but the locals will think we’re mad!

So amazing news indeed and I am now looking forward with excitement to a Love Actually airport reunion scene (if only in my head).

Love Stories

It’s quite fitting that I’m currently reading Trent Dalton’s Love Stories. Such a beautiful book!

Trent Dalton, Australia’s best-loved writer, goes out into the world and asks a simple, direct question: ‘Can you please tell me a love story?’

Goodreads
Love Stories by Trent Dalton
Love Stories by Trent Dalton

Being a parent and now a grandparent is the best kind of love story!

I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing Trent in person (via live-stream) at the Newcastle Writers Festival this weekend. My friend Denyse will be there in person in the front row!

Boomerang masks

Just one more story to share before I leave you to enjoy your amazing Wednesday.

When we left England in mid January 2020, Craig our SIL was concerned that there were no masks available at home – masks for bushfire smoke – so he stopped on our way to the bus station and bought us a box of the proper P2 masks and we took them home with us. They weren’t needed after all but we put them in a safe place and now we have found them again for the purpose of using them as we fly back to England later in the year as they are recommended for this purpose! How bizarre is that? The masks will have gone full circle!

So after more than 2 and a half years I will be reunited with Melanie, Craig and Dottie, (plus Ozzy Dog and Bruce the rabbit) and it feels amazing. I’ve often mentioned over the past few years, my despair at missing them and not being able to travel but now I am bouncing out of my seat with excitement!!!!

And why wouldn’t I be – just look at their happy smiling faces in the most recent photo taken on UK Mother’s Day.

Have an amazing day – you’re amazing too and don’t you forget it!

Deb 🙂

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Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. You can read more of Deb’s story here

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40 Replies to “We’re all going on a summer holiday…”

    1. Yes it really is great to have something like this to look forward to and I’m not going to be a very patient person waiting for the day to leave!!

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  6. I’m so excited for you Deb! It will be wonderful to hug Dottie and of course her Mum and Dad after such a long time. ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ always makes me teary as well as Love Actually. I’ve not read Trent Dalton’s books – probably because there has been so much hype about how good they are that I don’t want to feel let down. Get that calendar out and start crossing off the days until you fly away xx

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  11. How wonderful! Hope you have an amazing time. We’re off at the end of April to visit our duaghter who is studying in Canada and I can’t wait. Though it’s not as long since we’ve seen her. She only left at the end of December.

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  13. Aw I’m so pleased for you! I can feel the joy and excitement leaping off the page from your blog post. I have done the same and booked to see my family in the UK in June. Very excited too

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  14. What fabulous news!! How wonderful to have something like your trip to look forward to. So very happy for you. And look at Miss Dottie. She has blossomed and thrived and done so very well.
    Will you be staying in the same lovely cottage where you stayed last visit? I remember it being very cute and just round the bend or across the meadow from your daughter’s home.
    I am trying to get PC to think about a road trip to central Texas where we can just explore small towns and stay in bed and breakfasts.

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    1. Hi Leslie, it is great to finally have this trip in the pipeline. Yes hasn’t Dottie grown up? No we have a different cottage booked this time but hopefully it will be just as comfortable as last time! Thanks for your good thoughts and hoping you can get out and about soon too – a road trip to Texas sounds cool!

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  15. Hi Deb – I’m so pleased for you. I know how you’ve been longing to go and visit for sooooo long. I have another friend here in WA whose only daughter married a guy from Michigan – she and her husband jumped on a plane as soon as our borders finally opened so they could meet their TWO grandchildren that have been born since covid began – their excitement was palpable! You’re going to be in heaven!

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  19. This news has made my day…and week…lol. Wonderful to know you are ‘braving’ it to take BOLD steps to do what the heart wants and needs. I am going to so enjoy seeing your updates…Fingers crossed for my trip to Newcastle to be in the front row to see Trent Dalton because of awful weather forecast…but like you I will be brave and daring..and yes to the Qantas ad!! Denyse x

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